Hypnobirthing - My Birth Story

I have been wanting to write this post since my little girl arrived into this world but with one thing or another it has been put off and put off. She is now 7 weeks old and finally, here is my birthing experience, or what I can remember from it anyway!

My birthing story is one of standing by what me and my partner felt was right for us, many may think we took a big risk but for us we knew to listen and trust my body and my baby.

39 Weeks Pregnant

As I approached the 42 week mark I received a high amount of pressure from health professionals, family and friends to be induced. Where we live there is a policy to be induced at 41 weeks, they are very much against anyone wanting to go over, to them, the fact we wanted to wait it out and to see what happened seemed to be a alien decision. We never expected to get to the 42 week mark in truth, my bump dropped around 36 weeks so I convinced myself that she would arrive early, if not on time.

Non-Pregnant Day

After we went past the 41 week mark we were invited into James Cook, the hospital which we had chosen for our birth, to come up with a plan. We agreed that we would go in every other day for monitoring and a scan.
Monitoring would check that the baby was happy, her heart rate was good and that she wasn't in any distress. The scan would check to make sure that the baby still had enough fluid around her and that my placenta was still doing its job, as they say the placenta is only designed to support your baby for a certain amount of time. At each of these appointments no issues were discovered so I was able to happily continue with my pregnancy.

Within the final weeks of my pregnancy we tried everything that was recommended to us to naturally bring on labour, spicy food, walking - LOADS of walking in fact, sex, anything and everything that was suggested to us! Well, not quite everything, the thought of drinking castor oil really didn't tickle my fancy!

She finally decided to start making movements just after 41 weeks, I went for a check up and decided to ask the midwife to see what was going on! She told me I was 2cm which was music to my ears at that point. I didn't feel any different in myself at this stage, I had no niggles and not a single inkling that she was going to make an appearance any time soon. I was starting to get tired and fed up of everyone asking me when she would finally be here, so we decided to have a non pregnant day! We would turn off our phones and go for a good walk in the countryside with a nice picnic - so this is what we did. To my amazement, me relaxing and forgetting all about the pressure from everyone around me seemed to bring on contractions (yeey) well I say contractions, they weren't quite at that point but they were soon to follow.

On Sunday 2nd October I woke up through the night with slight cramping. Nothing painful but just enough to not allow me to sleep. So I ran myself a nice warm bath and had some me time where I focused on my breathing and all the relaxation techniques that I had learnt through my hypnobirthing class. The following day the cramping really picked up and developed into contractions. Late afternoon we were due to be at hospital anyway so we continued with this and popped in for mine and babies checks. They informed us at this point that I was 3cm. The midwife told me to go for a short walk and pop back in - so this is what we did - I must say it was the longest, shortest walk that I have ever been on! It seemed to take a life time but my contractions really picked up! They weren't painful but for some reason when they happened I couldn't seem to move, so had to stop with each one! When we got back to where the midwife was waiting I was 4 cm and she told me to stay in the hospital. Now, I know this goes against hypnobirthing but I was so relaxed with my surroundings I was happy to stay in and be there!

We were given an amazing room on there birthing suite. It had a massive bath, birthing pool, props for an active birth and the midwives literally couldn't do enough. They made us both feel so welcome and at home, we couldn't of wanted more. They fully understood our birth plan and just let me and my partner have our space. We ran a bath and I got in - this is where I stayed until I was offered the birthing pool. I felt so relaxed and at ease. Not once did I feel any pain or feel the need to panic.

After some time of been in the bath I was offered the birthing pool, I have no idea when and I wouldn't even be able to guess, but once I got into the pool it felt like everything was stepped up a gear! It felt like no time at all before we were ready to push her out and welcome her into the world!

The whole birthing process was utterly amazing! It is something that I would happily do over and over. No pain was felt, yes some of it was intense but I would never think to describe it as painful, not for a second. I would strongly recommend hypnobirthing to each and every lady that is either expecting or thinking about having a baby. Even if they aren't after a fully natural birth but to just give the tools to make the experience amazing and not scary in the slightest.

Harper Violet Headlam was born via water birth on the 4th October at 10:30 am weighing 9lbs 11ozs

2 comments:

42 weeks and 9lb 11oz baby... girl you are a trooper! Hypnobirthing sounds so interesting though and definitely something I'd look into next time. The pool was great but I only stayed in it for a couple of hours- not quite what I had planned! Also a non pregnant day sounds lovely :) hope mummy life is treating you well!

Haha thank you so much! It honestly is amazing - I use the breathing still, I feel less stressed and so much more relaxed. Sounds crazy but I never knew how to breath before. Mummy life is amazing! I love it so much. Hope you love it too, he is such a cutie!